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Pinellas Pays Out $100,000, Suspends 2 For Botched Bust
By STEPHEN THOMPSON The Tampa Tribune
Published: Jan 11, 2007
ST. PETERSBURG - Pinellas County sheriff's vice and narcotics detectives briefly lost a car they had under surveillance one afternoon in August, but then it reappeared: A white Chevrolet Lumina, with tinted windows, a yellow license plate, and two black men inside.
They didn't check one thing, however, when they spotted the Lumina the second time - the license tag.
That oversight Aug. 17 led to pandemonium at an Enterprise Rent-A-Car, when two detectives stormed the business, their guns drawn, and wrongfully arrested two black men.
The two sergeants thought they were arresting suspects who might have picked up 30 pounds of marijuana in a 1997 Lumina at a south St. Petersburg address.
The two men they took to the floor instead were Desmond D. Small, 26, and Christopher Lobban, 20, who had just finished their shift at Suntasia Marketing, a telemarketing firm in Largo.
Small was having problems with his 1995 Lumina, and decided to rent a car so he could put his own in the shop.
The two sergeants each have been suspended for 12 days, Sheriff Jim Coats said Wednesday, one day after the county commission agreed to pay the men a total of $100,000 in an out-of-court settlement.
"It's something we're not proud of," Coats said.
They were disciplined for failing to verify the license plate, and for using such force with the two men. Their names were not released because they continue to work undercover.
In a surveillance video, one sergeant was seen repeatedly putting his foot on Small's shoulder - or giving him a "foot strike" - as Small was prone on the floor, but trying to look around; this sergeant also pushed Small's face into the floor, the video shows.
"I stomped down trying to step on him and flatten him to the ground," the sergeant told internal affairs investigators.
After Small and Lobban were handcuffed, members of the squad gave each other high-fives, the video shows.
To the sergeants, Small was resisting while Lobban was not, according to their interviews with internal affairs. No one in the vice and narcotics division who was involved, including the captain in charge, had a problem with the level of force used.
However, Coats and the Enterprise employees who witnessed it did, the case file shows.
The sergeants are appealing their suspensions, Coats said.
Small's mouth bled from the inside and he suffered abrasions to his face as a result of his treatment by the sergeant, the internal affairs file shows.
He later told internal affairs investigators he chipped his two front teeth and suffered back pain. He received $65,000 in settlement money from the county, while Lobban will get $35,000, county records show.
"I'm like, 'What the hell is going on?' " Small told internal affairs investigators as he recounted what happened. "I said, 'Sir, I just got off work,' and they still wouldn't try to listen to me.
"I was really scared," Small said, according to his transcript. "I was just glad I was inside the building with other folks there."
The Lumina the vice unit had under surveillance at the south St. Petersburg address before it bolted from them was found abandoned a few blocks from the Enterprise branch.
The 30 pounds of marijuana was found in a Honda sport utility vehicle seen leaving the address at about the same time the Lumina sped away.
Reporter Stephen Thompson can be reached at (727) 823-3303 or [email protected].
By STEPHEN THOMPSON The Tampa Tribune
Published: Jan 11, 2007
ST. PETERSBURG - Pinellas County sheriff's vice and narcotics detectives briefly lost a car they had under surveillance one afternoon in August, but then it reappeared: A white Chevrolet Lumina, with tinted windows, a yellow license plate, and two black men inside.
They didn't check one thing, however, when they spotted the Lumina the second time - the license tag.
That oversight Aug. 17 led to pandemonium at an Enterprise Rent-A-Car, when two detectives stormed the business, their guns drawn, and wrongfully arrested two black men.
The two sergeants thought they were arresting suspects who might have picked up 30 pounds of marijuana in a 1997 Lumina at a south St. Petersburg address.
The two men they took to the floor instead were Desmond D. Small, 26, and Christopher Lobban, 20, who had just finished their shift at Suntasia Marketing, a telemarketing firm in Largo.
Small was having problems with his 1995 Lumina, and decided to rent a car so he could put his own in the shop.
The two sergeants each have been suspended for 12 days, Sheriff Jim Coats said Wednesday, one day after the county commission agreed to pay the men a total of $100,000 in an out-of-court settlement.
"It's something we're not proud of," Coats said.
They were disciplined for failing to verify the license plate, and for using such force with the two men. Their names were not released because they continue to work undercover.
In a surveillance video, one sergeant was seen repeatedly putting his foot on Small's shoulder - or giving him a "foot strike" - as Small was prone on the floor, but trying to look around; this sergeant also pushed Small's face into the floor, the video shows.
"I stomped down trying to step on him and flatten him to the ground," the sergeant told internal affairs investigators.
After Small and Lobban were handcuffed, members of the squad gave each other high-fives, the video shows.
To the sergeants, Small was resisting while Lobban was not, according to their interviews with internal affairs. No one in the vice and narcotics division who was involved, including the captain in charge, had a problem with the level of force used.
However, Coats and the Enterprise employees who witnessed it did, the case file shows.
The sergeants are appealing their suspensions, Coats said.
Small's mouth bled from the inside and he suffered abrasions to his face as a result of his treatment by the sergeant, the internal affairs file shows.
He later told internal affairs investigators he chipped his two front teeth and suffered back pain. He received $65,000 in settlement money from the county, while Lobban will get $35,000, county records show.
"I'm like, 'What the hell is going on?' " Small told internal affairs investigators as he recounted what happened. "I said, 'Sir, I just got off work,' and they still wouldn't try to listen to me.
"I was really scared," Small said, according to his transcript. "I was just glad I was inside the building with other folks there."
The Lumina the vice unit had under surveillance at the south St. Petersburg address before it bolted from them was found abandoned a few blocks from the Enterprise branch.
The 30 pounds of marijuana was found in a Honda sport utility vehicle seen leaving the address at about the same time the Lumina sped away.
Reporter Stephen Thompson can be reached at (727) 823-3303 or [email protected].
